To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 3
3 PL 23, 353
3. We all know what he wrote to you, what charge he brought against you, wherein (as you maintain) he has slandered you. Answer the points, one by one; follow the footsteps of this letter; leave not a single jot or tittle of the slander unnoticed. For if you are careless, and accidentally pass over any thing as I believe you on your oath to have done, he will immediately cry out: “Now, now, you have got the worst of it, the whole thing turns upon this.” Words do not sound the same in the ears of friends and enemies. An enemy looks for a knot even in a bulrush; a friend judges even crooked to be straight. It is a saying of secular writers that lovers are blind in their judgments, though, perhaps, you are too busy with the sacred books to pay any attention to such literature. You should never boast of what your friends think of you. That is true testimony which comes from the lips of foes. On the contrary, if a friend speaks in your behalf he will be considered not as a witness but a judge or a partisan. This is the sort of thing your enemies will say, who perhaps give no credit to you, and only wish to vex you. But I, whom you say you have never willingly injured, yet whose name you are always bound to bandy about in your letters, advise you either to openly proclaim the faith of the Church, or to speak as you believe. For that cautious mincing and weighing of words may, no doubt, deceive the unlearned; but a careful hearer and reader will quickly detect the snare, and will show in open daylight the subterranean mines by which truth is overthrown. The Arians (no one knows more about them than you) for a long time pretended that they condemned theHomoousion on account of the offence it gave, and they besmeared poisonous error with honeyed words. But at last the snake uncoiled itself, and its deadly head, which lay concealed under all its folds, was pierced by the sword of the Spirit. The Church, as you know, welcomes penitents, and is so overwhelmed by the multitude of sinners that it is forced, in the interests of the misguided flocks, to be lenient to the wounds of the shepherds. Ancient and modern heresy observes the same rule—the people hear one thing, the priests preach another.
Sunt porro, quibus liber iste ab auctore non finitus videatur, quod ea factum de causa putant, quod eo ipso tempore quo scribebatur, Theophili studio pax inita tandem sit. Verum neque improbabile sit opinari, temporum injuria postremam ejus partem, eamque perexiguam, excidisse. Ut ut se res habeat, certe Rufinum latuit isthaec elucubratio, in quam maxime velitari non destitisset in Invectivarum libris. Ex his mirum quantum eruditi viri dissentiant in assignanda illi temporis epocha: qui citius anno 393, qui serius 406, affigunt, alii prout libitum fuit, intermediis annis. Nos ut an. 399, vel 400 consignemus, duobus hisce argumentis persuademur, quae in notis Chronologicis Epistolarum jam proposuimus. Primum est, quod Commentarios in Ecclesiastem, et explanationem Epistolae ad Ephesios a se ante annos ferme decem concinnatam tradit; quos ut de Commentariis tantum dicamus, circa annum 390 adornasse idem ipse testatur tum alibi, tum praecipue in eorumdem Praefatione ad Paulam et Eustochium, ubi, post ferme quinquennium, ex quo Roma evasisset, istud se operis suscepisse, planissime indicat. His porro si ferme decem adjunxeris, annus efficitur 399 aut 400. Alterum, quo idem tempus colligitur, argumentum inde petimus, quod sub Opusculi finem se dicit ante annos tredecim Antiochiam celeberrimam urbem deseruisse, ut in agris ac solitudine, adolescentiae deflens peccata, Christi in se misericordiam deflecteret. Enimvero, non nisi ab exacto anno 386 hi tredecim supputari ullo modo possunt, siquidem usque ad superioris 385 Augustum mensem Romae eum constitisse compertum est; quo tempore cum in Orientem adnavigasset, aliis subinde regionibus peragratis, tum demum substitit Antiochiae: quam urbem ideo se indicat deseruisse, quod in ejus Ecclesia, ad quam ob ordinationem pertinere videretur, cum splendide posset munere sacerdotii defungi, maluit agros ac solitudinem appetere, ut adolescentiae peccata poenitentia deleret. Tredecim ergo annis illi 386 superadditis, exoritur 399, aut initium 400, cui magis placet hunc librum ascribere, antequam Isidorus Alexandrinus presbyter a synodo ejus anni ac loci per Theophilum damnaretur.